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Five States to Join Math Project for College Students

Leaders and policymakers in five states will develop state mathematics task forces and work to improve college student success through a new initiative from The University of Texas at Austin's Charles A. Dana Center. The three-year project is funded by a $2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Math graduate student Yaoguang Zhu leads a math discussion group.

The New Mathways Project, which helps entering college students achieve better results, already works with 50 community college systems and 28 universities in Texas as well as seven other states. The new expansion will bring the project to five additional states: Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma and Washington.

After the New Mathways Project was implemented in Texas, 23 percent of students enrolled successfully completed a college-credit-bearing math course within one year, compared with the statewide average of 8 percent. Campuses that implemented the program with the highest fidelity to recommendations had 43 percent of students earn college credit in one year.

The Charles A. Dana Center will work with mathematics faculty members, administrators and policymakers in the five new states to replicate these successes and develop each state's mathematics task force.

The task forces will support faculty leadership, set the vision and create the momentum to promote mathematics "pathways" in institutions statewide. The focus of the New Mathways Project is to provide students with math pathways that give them choices among several different courses or course sequences in which they learn rigorous mathematics relevant to their chosen fields of study. The math pathways approach requires shifting from a focus on individual courses toward a focus on full pathways that provide a coherent learning experience.

"My life's work has been to improve my own teaching and the systems that support teachers so that all students can learn the mathematics they need to succeed in school and in life," said Uri Treisman, New Mathways Project founder and Dana Center executive director. "This expansion of the New Mathways Project should help tens of thousands of students achieve their American dream of a college credential and a better future."

Acceleration that allows students to complete college-level math courses more quickly than in the traditional developmental math sequence

Intentional use of strategies to help students develop skills as learners

Curriculum design and pedagogy based on proven practice

The New Mathways Project's state-level work is also closely connected to national undergraduate mathematics reform movements. The Dana Center is collaborating with leading professional associations of mathematicians through TPSE Math and Common Vision 2025. These initiatives are focused on redesigning the undergraduate math program, including advocacy for multiple mathematics pathways.

The New Mathways Project is often identified as an innovative model setting the standard for how to improve undergraduate mathematics education.

About the author

Vivian Abagiu is the Digital Content Producer for the College of Natural Sciences. She holds a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri and a bachelor's degree in communications from St. Mary's University.